Cherry fly: the causes of the occurrence and measures to combat pest

The cherry fly is one of the main enemies of the summer resident, since it can in a short period destroy the harvest of cherries and cherries. Even if she does not eat everything, she will surely spoil every berry.Larvae often leave the fetus before it is harvested, but it becomes unusable as the flesh rots. How and when to start fighting with it, every summer resident wants to know.

A cherry fly looks very miniature, but one female can spoil about a hundred and fifty cherries, and when there are many of them, the entire crop, without exception, suffers. To notice this pest is not so easy. As a rule, gardeners will find out if there is a problem when wormy fruits appear. Unfortunately, prevention will not give proper results.

The length of the front sight reaches 5.5 mm. She is distinguished by green eyes, a black shiny body, yellow paws and a head. She herself is not a danger to the fruit of the cherry tree, but her larvae, which look like small white worms. When they are adults, they can reach 7 mm in length. If you break the berry, you can easily see the insect.

The period of hatching from the pupa of an adult fly occurs in early spring, when the temperature of the soil reaches 10 degrees. As a guide, you can use the flowering of acacia.

The hatching females do not immediately begin laying eggs, they need to eat. Food is the excretion of aphids and the acid of the emerging green. Within 12 days, the grower has time to see if there is a problem and prevent eggs from laying in the fruit. As soon as the air temperature reaches 18 degrees, mating occurs.

A fly flies and spoils the fruit from the beginning to the middle of summer, therefore not only ripe cherry suffers, but also green. The female, as soon as she laid her eggs, dies, since she completed her task.

After a week, the larvae hatch from the eggs, which reach a length of half a millimeter, but immediately begin to actively eat the flesh of the fruit. This stage lasts about 18 days, after which the worm is no longer interested in cherries and successfully leaves it in order to enter another phase of development, pupation.

Special activity can be traced in the southern regions of the country, since here the most favorable conditions have been created for this process. In some years, wormy cover up to 80% of the harvest. If there are two berries with a larva for one hundred pieces, then it is time to use biochemical disinfectants.

If the gardener does not know how to determine the presence of a problem, he should pay attention to a number of signs:

• in the first stage, the fruits are covered with small black dots, which are the puncture site of the thin skin of the cherry, where the fly has already laid the larva;
• on the spot of points a small cavity forms with time, sometimes rot appears;
• color is also crucial, as the skin of the fetus becomes dull, loses its luster, and the flesh no longer has elasticity.

Some gardeners do not understand where the pest could come from if last year was a good harvest. In fact, the fault is nature and its secret intention, because the main task of the fly is to lay eggs and multiply. The insect finds the necessary fruits by its sweet smell, it is no wonder that it was given the smell. Most fly scare techniques are based on this principle, that is, the preparations change the smell of the plant.

Measures of insect control may be different: it is not only drugs, but also folk remedies, tested over the years. It is not easy to get rid of a fly, but if you spray a plant, it will not take it as a source of food, thus the gardener will save the harvest.

The main battle must begin after the insect flies out of the pupa. Excellent show themselves over the years insecticides. Spraying trees will need two times:

• in the first composition is applied to the crown at the end of May, when there is a massive flight of insects;
• the second time the use of funds is advisable, after two weeks, in the period of laying the larvae.

Among the fixed assets: "Aktellik", "Confidor", you can use "Proteus". But for the second treatment, the previously used drug should not be used if it is necessary to get rid of the fly once and for all. The fact is that it gets used to any poison and becomes immune to it.

If you plan to spray the plants with insecticide, then harvesting is required to be postponed for at least 20 days, since so many toxic substances decompose. It is said that the cherry is not the most affected by the insect, but the cherry, because it ripens an order of magnitude earlier. This is the reason why the use of insecticides is impractical, so you can turn to folk remedies that have no less force.

Some summer residents install special traps on the branches, into which the fermented sweet liquid is poured. As it can be used:

• kvass;
• molasses;
• compote.

Flies gladly fly in and stay there. Precisely because the insect does not see anything, but has a strong sense of smell, professionals advise to spray the garden with strong-smelling compounds. Extracts are perfect:

• needles;
• garlic;
• wormwood;
• tobacco.

You can protect yourself from young insects from the ground and close them to hatching. To do this, apply the agrofiber, which cover the ground around the tree. Of course, it will not be possible to fundamentally fight this way, but it is possible to reduce the insect population. It depends on the gardener whether his crop will be saved. You can’t let a fly spoil it; there is enough money to fight today, all you have to do is not to be lazy and provide quality garden care.

With the observance of the processing time, prevention becomes one of the best methods for keeping the harvest intact.

• It is imperative to keep an eye on the cherry: as soon as flies began to appear inside the sticky traps, prevention was immediately required. The appearance of already 20 insects indicates the beginning of a massive summer. If weather conditions are unfavorable for growth and reproduction, that is, the summer is very cold, then there will not be a large population, since most of the pupae fall into a state of diapause: they are not going to go outside.
• One of the most effective means of prophylaxis was and remains chemical preparations, however, they are quite harmful for humans, therefore, before using sprayed fruits, it is necessary to wait for the decay of poisons. Taking into account the effectiveness of the funds, not all of them can be used at the early stage of the ripening of sweet cherries, that's when all the forces should be thrown onto the complex use of traditional agricultural technology.
• Preventive work begins in the fall, when the soil is not only cleared under the tree, but also dug up so that the larvae die from frost or were eaten by birds. Worst of all, when the grass grows under a tree, which gives the necessary shelter to the insect.

• It is best to use earlier varieties on the plot, the ripening period of which does not coincide with the time of the mass summer of the fly. The first spraying should be carried out as soon as the soil has warmed to 18 degrees with a plus sign.It is also advised to spray not only the crown of trees, but also the soil around.
• If the fruits are already ripe, it is best to collect them immediately, because if the fly has not yet managed to damage them, then the remaining berries may well be affected in a few days. Even single cherries are not advised to leave, because their infection is also possible, and next year will have to deal with the invasion of insects.
• If cherry aphid is observed on plants nearby, then these plantings also require treatment, since it is the main food for the fly. It is very effective to plant nearby strongly smelling flowers, for example, marigolds or marigolds, they interrupt the sweet smell of cherries, and the insect simply does not find trees.
• Non-aggressive methods of struggle are used by some gardeners more often because they are safe for humans. Broth wormwood, sprayed on the leaves, has a positive effect. Sometimes they use a soap solution that is completely harmless to wood, but creates a film on cherries.
• The most popular methods of prevention and control are widely available. The stores sell many effective means of protection, and the cost is acceptable. The gardener must carry out the processing in time, if he wants not to lose his crop, but to preserve it.

You can fight with a fly, but for this you need to make maximum efforts. The result - a beautiful cherry, suitable for food.

About why a cherry fly appears and how to fight it, see the next video.